Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interviewed Tuesday evening by Prof. Walter Russell Mead, at the Hartog National Security Conference held at the Satai Hotel in Tel Aviv. The conference held at the Satai Hotel in Tel Aviv was also attended by former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, MK Simcha Rothman, senators from the US state, Tikva Foundation Chairman Elliot Abrams, and businessmen and academics from the US.
The Prime Minister was first asked what the policy will be with Iran, assuming that the American administration will claim that the nuclear agreement is completely terminated. In response, Netanyahu issued his opinion regarding the desired way of dealing with it: "We have to ask - how do you stop a recalcitrant country from obtaining nuclear weapons? Let's see, there were a few examples, so maybe we can deduce the rules from them."
Regarding Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Netanyahu said in his interview with Prof. Walter Russell Mead:
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) February 21, 2023
"I think we can have a quantum leap if the Saudi leadership decides that it wants to be formally part of this. Informally, they're part of this." pic.twitter.com/XpersH6Xlz
“Iran is trying to develop such a weapon. Their program was stalled for a year in 2003, right after the gulf war, when they thought you, America, would take action against them, so they stopped and made it a secret program under the cover of various civilian research institutes. But they continued. They were stopped or at least slowed down, by various measures we took [Israel], and sanctions that were imposed. The Americans imposed the sanctions because they said that 'there is some madman in Jerusalem who will bomb them if we don't do something' - and thus Iran came to the negotiating table. But they left the money on the table and reached a bad agreement.
Netanyahu added that “the only thing that has reliably prevented rogue states from developing nuclear weapons is a credible military threat or credible military action. This can be combined with crippling economic sanctions, but these are not sufficient conditions. A necessary condition, and often a sufficient condition, is credible military action.
A credible military threat is the best way to deter Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but it becomes harder to do so the longer one waits, Netanyahu told the Hartog National Security Conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night.
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) February 22, 2023
Later, when asked about future peace agreements, Netanyahu referred to the expansion of the circle of peace and spoke of the approaching agreement with Saudi Arabia: "If we have the upper hand, I think we can expand the circle of peace, and if we expand the circle of peace to Saudi Arabia, I think we will actually end the Arab-Israeli conflict. This means that we have to work Not from the inside out to solve the Palestinian problem."
“I believe that the pursuit of peace, which is based on common interests and the use of Israeli military, intelligence, technological, and economic power on which peace agreements and normalization agreements with our neighbors can be based, we can achieve two things. one - to expand the circle of peace; Second - it will serve as a shield against Iran. I believe that we can reach a breakthrough if the Saudi leadership decides that they want to be a part of it officially. In an unofficial way, they are already."
